350 THE HURON CHURCH. [1645-48. 



sometimes hung in a neighboring tree.^ Every 

 morning it rang its summons to mass ; and, issu- 

 ing from thek dwellings of bark, the converts 

 gathered within the sacred precinct, where the 

 bare, rude w^alls, fresh from the axe and saw, con- 

 trasted with the sheen of tinsel and gilding, and 

 the hues of gay draperies and gaudy pictures. At 

 evening they met again at prayers ; and on Sun- 

 day, masses, confession, catechism, sermons, and 

 repeating the rosary consumed the whole day.^ 



These converts rarely took part in the burning 

 of prisoners. On the contrary, they sometimes set 

 their faces against the practice ; and on one occa- 

 sion, a certain Etienne Totiri, while his heathen 

 countrymen were tormenting a captive Iroquois at 

 St. Ignace, boldly denounced them, and promised 

 them an eternity of flames and demons, unless they 

 desisted. Not content with this, he addressed an 

 exhortation to the sufi'erer in one of the intervals 

 of his torture. The dying wretch demanded bap- 

 tism, which Etienne took it upon himself to ad- 

 minister, amid the ho o tings of the crowd, who, as 

 he ran with a cup of water from a neighboring 

 house, pushed him to and fro to make him spill it, 

 crying out, " Let him alone ! Let the devils burn 

 him after we have done ! " ^ 



1 A fragment of one of these bells, found on the site of a Huron town,, 

 is preserved in the museum of Huron relics at the Laval University, 

 Queb<^c. The bell was not large, but was of very elaborate workman- 

 ship. Before 1644 the Jesuits had used old copper kettles as a substitute. 

 — Lettre de Lalemant, 31 March, 1644. 



■2 Ragueneau, Relation des Hiirons, 1646, 56. 



3 Ibid., 58. The Hurons often resisted the baptism of their prisoners, 

 on the ground that Hell, and not Heaven, was the place to which they 



